I have been asked by Balsam Hill to talk about my Christmas Dinner Traditions as part of a project about discovering what people around the world have for Christmas dinner. I thought this was a very interesting project to be a part of, so here are my Christmas Dinner traditions.
As many of you know, I’m originally from Peru so my Christmas traditions come from there. I have been in the UK for about 12 years now, and away from Peru for 13 years. Before this, all my Christmas dinners were in Peru.
What I tend to do is trying to combine my Peruvian traditions with the UK traditions so both my girls experience a little bit of both. Because of the long distance and the cost of travelling, we have not spent Christmas in Peru for several years. I think we have been there for Christmas only once and just with my eldest daughter.
For that reason, we have been trying to recreate my Peruvian Christmas Dinner at home. For those of you that didn’t know, in Peru, we celebrate Christmas on 24th December (Christmas Eve) and we have our dinner in the evening. This is something that I try to implement into our Christmas traditions every year.
What makes it traditional is that we eat on Christmas Eve and we only eat these dishes on that day. Because this is not a tradition in the UK, this has become our special tradition for my immediate family. My girls now know that this is how we celebrate Christmas in Peru and we try to make Christmas Eve and even more special night for them.
For me, what makes my Christmas meal special is that it reminds me of my home in Peru. As I mentioned before, we can’t travel there every year, so this meal on Christmas Eve is my way of keeping me close to my family in Peru despite being miles away.
Our Christmas Eve Dinner
For our Christmas Eve dinner, we have 4 dishes for our main dinner together with panettone and hot chocolate as a dessert. For Christmas dinner we eat:
- Potato Salad (potato, bacon and mayonnaise)
- Asparagus Souffle (main ingredients: asparagus, milk, parmesan, eggs, butter, chicken cube)
- Turkey (injected with Pisco)
- Turkey Filling (main ingredients: minced chicken, minced beef, ham, raisins, olives, nuts, bread loaf, eggs)
My Christmas meal is a tradition from my mum’s side. We have eaten the same dishes every year since I can remember. I’m always looking forward to eating them. We don’t prepare these dishes for any other occasion during the year so we really look forward to them on Christmas Eve.
Favourite part of my Christmas dinner
My favourite part of our Christmas dinner is the potato salad mixed with the applesauce. I love the sweet and sour flavour that you get by combining them. Also, I love the panettone and hot chocolate drink that we have after. It is really lovely.
It is interesting to mention that even though all these dishes that we eat back home in Peru are Peruvian, you would expect me to cook them but the truth is that I don’t cook them. It is actually Nick who prepares them with my supervision. He usually cooks At home so he enjoys making these dishes. He finds this very interesting and loves the idea of learning how we do it in Peru.
I really love spending Christmas Eve together, especially with Nick and the girls. It is definitely a special moment for all of us. We love having this tradition, I hope its something my girls will continue to enjoy when they are older!
What are your Christmas traditions? What do you eat for Christmas? When and how do you celebrate it?
*Disclosure: Collaborative post
Thanks for stopping by,
Love you all ❤️
Franca 💋
Linking up with:
I’ve recenrtly learnt from people I know they come from Brazil, Columbia and Thailand they they also celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. My cousin in laws hunsvand is from Vrazil and they start celebrating but eatin and drinking through the night starting Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is just a day to recover. The reason being that midnight is symbolising the birth of Christ.
I’m starting to realise that the UK are actually the unusual ones when it comes to celebrating Christmas how we do. We love the traditional turkey dinner with all the family. Although we alternate between my family and hubs each year. I’m hoping one year to have a house big enough to host them all at our house.
Since I was a child we have always opened one small present on Xmas eve so that is a tradition I carried into our house when myself and hubs moved in together. And now with little George.
Have a fab Christmas time. I’ve enjoyed reading all about Peruvian Christmas traditions.
Aww thank you Cassie! It is always nice to learn a little bit more other countries Christmas traditions. I find that fascinating! I wish I have a big house too and be able to host my family! Hoppefully one day we both have that! 😉 xx
We can keep trying huh. I’m gonna just downsize my furniture for the time being lol. The toys are taking over. Lol #KCACOLS
Lol xx
Looks amazing and it was really tasty we both really enjoyed the meal.
It was really nice right! So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 xx
Interesting the Pisco – In Oz, because it’s boiling hot half the time, we have cold turkey and prawns…and potato salad. My inlaws are Italian so it’s pasta, anti -pasti and cannoli….#KALCOLS
I love pasta! I wouldn’t mind eat that at all! 😉 x
So interesting to read about Christmas traditions in your homeland! We are very traditional in our house and for me it has to be turkey, there has to be pigs in blankets and there has to be sprouts. They’re a marmite veg but I love them! #kcacols
I am the one that doesn’t like sprouts! But I have an excuse because I only learnt about it when I moved to the UK so I might need some time to get to like it 😉 lol x
I love that you are trying to combine your Peruvian traditions with the UK traditions. The potato salad mixed with the applesauce looks delish!
BTW, I didn’t know you were from Peru!
#KCACOLS
Thank you lovely! Yes I am from Peru but with an Italian background so I have a lot of Italian traditions too! I’m so happy you are back to the linky! 🙂 xx
It’s interesting to read about about people christmas traditions, I just always assumed that christmas day was celebrated on the 25th around the world. I now know differently. My fav part of christmas dinner are nice roast potatoes and mint sause, oh and yorkshire puddings yum! #kcacols
It’s so interesting to read about the different ways people celebrate Christmas around the world. How lovely for your girls to have a special tradition that celebrates their Peruvian heritage. #KCACOLS
I did not know you were from Peru 🙂 I’ve never heard of an asparagus souffle that looks so good. We make Christmas Eve a little bit special in our house too thanks to our German roots but that generally translates into a Christmas Eve box which I think is a very common tradition now. Your family meal looks lovely and cosy. #KCACOLS
Thank you Kate! 🙂
I love hearing about other traditions, I’m surprised so many people celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve! #kcacols
I love it when you can incorporate different traditions from different countries into one big dinner! My partner is Italian and I wish we did more of a dinner with an Italian twist. It would be great for Mia to be part of something her daddy was many years ago 🙂
#KCACOLS
I never knew you were from Peru! Wow… I love your Christmas Eve dinner. That is so special! #KCACOLS (Please add me to the email reminder) x
Thank you! I’m looking forward to eating that again very soon! Yummy! Lol 🙂 x
That’s great that you also get to share your Christmas traditions with your family. Interesting to know how Christmas is done in Peru! #KCACOLS
Yes I like that my girls can have a little bit of my traditions too! 🙂 x
It’s lovely to learn how you incorporate your Christmas into how we celebrate it here. It sounds like you really do manage to bring the 2 traditions together #kcacols
Thank you Tracey! 🙂
Before my Mrs. entered my life, I had Chinese food and a movie, like every other northeast Jew in the US!
Now we have lovely times with our girls and our family, her family, and we are making memories and traditions as we go along the way! Happiest of holidays Franca! <3 #KCACOLS xoxo
Its great to read about how you combine the two traditions at Christmas. In Mexico we also celebrate on the night of the 24th, but the food is very different. Maybe I should try to make a traditional English Christmas dinner on the 25th, I’ve never done that before! #KCACOLS
So interesting! The dinner looks delicious and very simple! It’s lovely you are keeping the traditions from your own childhood alive. We don’t so anything out of the ordinary but I do absolutely love Christmas dinner. on Christmas Day! x #kcacols
ASparagus soufflé is something I have never heard of before but I bet it’s amazing! Love asparagus here! I love your christmas dinner traditions, it’s so interesting to read! #kcacols
This is so interesting to read – I had no idea what a Puruvian Christmas dinner involved! Hope you enjoyed it & happy new year! #KCACOLS
Thank you lovely! Happy New Year to you too! 🙂 x
Asparagus soufflé? I’m impressed Franca! #kcacols
It is amazing! So tasty! 🙂 x
I LOVE nothing more than trying out dishes from other countries and cultures and must say these Peruvian dishes look so tasty and delicious! Thanks for sharing x #KCACOLS
This looks delicious Franca! We had Christmas just the five of us this year, we normally visit family but instead we stayed at home. It was very low key and we had traditional roast turkey with all the trimming 🙂 Happy New Year and apologies for my commenting being so late! K x
Your dinner looks gorgeous and from Peru too!
celebrate with a traditional turkey roast dinner on xmas day, we usually have a starter and a pudding too
I’ll have to give this a go sometime. It looks lovely.
Sounds great!